Mini Beasts and Fun with Water!
Over the last week, the toddlers have been looking at mini beasts exploring what they look like, how they move and where they live. The toddlers started by making ladybirds where they choose which colour they wanted to use and how many spots their ladybird should have. Finley lined up four spots in a line to ensure his ladybird was symmetrical where Rafferty asked for two spots and stuck these on, he then noticed his friends had more than him so asked politely for “Two more please!”.
Outside, the toddlers have been enjoying the hot weather by taking part in many water activities including searching for bugs in ice and fishing for newts. The toddlers loved watching the ice melt and feeling the icy water on their hands. Chloe particularly enjoyed putting her freezing hands on her bare belly and shouting “It’s COOOOLD!”. Towards the end of day, the children decided to collect water in different containers and pour water on themselves and their friends to cool down. Sadie enjoyed collecting the water in a saucepan, lifting it up to her head and pouring it all over herself. She would then say “Look, I’m all wet!” as if she was surprised!
Back inside, the toddlers worked together to build the bees a new beehive. They used lots of different cereals including weetabix, shreddies and Cheerios to create texture and a lifelike look to their beehive. Youcef enjoyed placing one Cheerio on the beehive and then trying his hardest to eat the other without being seen. Blake made sure to cover every single gap in the beehive to ensure the “Bees can’t leave through holes” she said.
This week, the under twos have enjoyed experiencing different textures. As we make our beach theme board. Kitty and Esmé had fun using the sand shakes to make their sandcastles. As the sand fell from the shaker, Esmé shouted “Wow!” while Luciano and Amélie made fabulous strokes using their glue spreaders, before adding their coloured sand to make the sandcastles. Whilst playing with the playdough, Sebastian and Sophie enjoyed pressing the dough cutters into the playdough, while Cecilia was having fun squeezing and squashing it between her fingers, when Kitty saw what she was doing she copied and began to laugh as she squeezed the dough between her fingers.
Out in the garden, Otto and Amélie have been using the sand to make sandcastles. Jack crawled over to the sandpit and sat inside, he reached forwards for a spade and smiled as he scooped the sand onto his spade and watched it fall off. Sebastian was enjoying using the plastic sieve, filling it with sand and watching it fall from the bottom whilst Otto was looking intrigued at what he was doing and followed along, this made Otto laugh which in turn made Sebastian smile.
It was a beautiful warm day, so we had an exciting time playing with the water tray with lots of sea animals floating in the water. Freddie found it funny to splash water using his hands, which made Sophie laugh and began to copy, making each other laugh as the water splashed their faces. Sophie was loving splashing the water getting wetter and wetter, she was laughing so much she that she fell onto her bottom. Margot was a little unsure at first, but soon enjoyed splashing around with the water, joining in so the water was going all over the place!
Father's Day Breakfast!
This week we had a very good turnout for our Father’s Day big breakfast event which was a lovely morning. The children were so excited to bring their daddies in to nursery with them when they got to nursery in the morning and were very helpful at showing them around the rooms and the garden area too. It was lovely to see the children and fathers enjoying a lovely breakfast together in the sunshine. The pre-school children were talking to each other throughout the day about they liked the most about the event, Zac told his friends at lunch time, “My daddy liked seeing my bag and my peg!”, whilst Amelia said, “And my daddy liked the garden with my baby Jack too!”. What wonderful event!
This week in preschool, the children have been making the most of the summer sunshine by getting stuck in with some water play in the garden. They filled the water tray with water from the hose and Joshua laughed as the water sprayed back out of the tray and on to him! Once the trays were filled, they experimented with different jugs and containers to see which ones held the most water and which ones poured the best. Francis lifted a small container into the air and watched as water poured out of some holes in the base of the container, exclaiming “Oh no! It’s all coming out!” In the other water tray, Joshua and William enjoyed playing with the water mills. They placed one above another and poured water into the top. The water poured down and span the mills as it did so. William said “Look, it’s working!” Joshua added “We need more water! Quick!”
The children have also had fun with some sensory jelly play, starting off with the jelly in some containers watching closely as it wobbled as they shook it gently. They the scooped the jelly out of the pots and into the builders trays, exploring its texture with their hands and fingers by squishing and squeezing it. Alastair laughed as the jelly drooped out from between his fingers and fell into the builders tray, whilst Ezmie said “This is so messy!”. They also engaged another out our senses by smelling the Jelly as we played with it. William told his friends “This jelly smells like strawberry!”
Jubilee Celebrations!
The children have been very excited in every area of the nursery to prepare for the Jubilee Afternoon Tea Party, when parents joined the staff and children to celebrate.
Over the past few weeks the toddlers have been working hard getting ready for the Queen’s platinum jubilee. They were given lots of different red, blue and white materials to create a giant Union Jack flag to go on the display board in the toddler room. Rowan enjoyed spreading glue all over his paper and then using sand to decorate it, while Tommy chose to use only blue wax crayons. During the week, they had the opportunity to do some baking hoping that they would be able to give the Queen some cookies at their jubilee party! Alastair enjoyed mixing the flour, sugar and butter together while Chloe enjoyed blowing the flour off her hands and seeing it fly into the air. Once the cookies were made, the children were able to decorate them using icing in the royal colours. Luna couldn’t resist licking her fingers when she got icing on them, saying “It’s yummy!” with a cheeky grin on her face.
The toddlers worked together to make beautiful crowns not only for themselves but also for their parents to wear when they came into nursery for the jubilee tea party. Blake and Sadie carefully placed each jewel on their crowns making sure to not miss any spaces. Sophie came to the tea party dressed as a princess but was sadly missing a crown. She walked into toddler room and found herself, her mummy and her daddy a crown! While at the party, the toddlers also had the opportunity to have some face paint! They each got to choose what they would like and where the face paint should go. Reegan said “Jack flag” meaning the Union Jack, where Sadie asked for a “black triangle”. The toddlers were so proud of their face paints making sure not to touch their faces so they didn’t smudge.
The children in the under twos room have been having an amazing time getting ready for the jubilee! They have baked some wonderful jubilee cupcakes, taking turns to stir the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Freddie carefully spooned the sugar in while Esmé mixed the butter. Cecilia was very interested in the eggs, gently holding one before helping to whisk it up. Margot loved using the big spoon, peering over the edge of the bowl. Youcef and Sophie couldn’t resist having a cheeky taste of the icing which they stirred up watching the colours change from white to blue and red.
The babies really enjoyed creating a special platinum jubilee display board for all of the parents to see during the party. Amèlie and Esmé really got stuck into the hand painting activity, painting their own hands using a paintbrush then smearing them across the paper. Isabelle and Youcef carefully used small spatulas to spread glue then used red and blue pieces of paper to create fantastic flags. Meanwhile, Sebastian and Margot were busy mark-making in royal colours.
The children loved having all the parents join us in the jubilee celebrations. Margot, Amélie and Ceci loved exploring the sandpit and showing her grandma around, while Freddie and Otto discovered the mud kitchen, banging the pots and plating up delicious mud pies to go with the party food! Jude and Jack enjoyed the picnic food with their parents and siblings as well as showing them around the garden.
A great time was had by all!
